Monday, 28 July 2014

Has anyone been watching all the sports of the Commonwealth or Tour de France recently? Now as most of you may be able to tell, I am not a real sporty kinda gal, but I have been especially enjoying all the good nature and thrills of the Commonwealth Games. Aren't the Home Nations doing so well? And as for Erraid...isn't she just a doll? Well done. She is a star in the making!

I thought I would share some cycling cards with you. You may recall that I made a pink cycling card for a friend to send to her friend recently. Well the recipient's birthday was last week and she was thrilled by the card I made, so much so that she told the sender not to buy any more cards, but that she was just going to get this one out every year! Awww bless!

I made some alternative versions to have in hand too...

Don't you just love the washi tape I have used? It is a NBUS having seen it in a local branch of Wilkinson and fell in love with it.

The papers and brads are VOs and some bits are Snippets so I off to whizz this over to the Snippets Playground. The stamp is Penny Black of course, the stamped banners and the "ribbon" as well as the embossing folder are all SU. All coloured in with Copics.

Thanks for calling by. I shall give someone a push on the swings if you fancy!

Friday, 25 July 2014

It is 25th of July and so time for Rudolph Day with my mate Sandra. This month seems to have come round sooo quick...or is it me?

Without further ado here are my cards...

I used a piece of stripey DCWV paper for the backround which I found loitering in the Christmas Snippets basket, some red bazzill, a little snippet of silver card and then topped with a stamping of my NBUS Penny Black stamp that a Special Friend bought me for my birthday last month! I coloured it in with Copics..

And some more...

I stamped the image twice, once onto white card and again on the VOS background paper. The stampings on white card I coloured in with Copics again, cut them out and then using the stamping on the background paper, I adhered them using foam pads. The turquoise glitter card which I used to cut the MB music and Sizzix corners is the last of the K&Co paper I had. Such a shame as it cut beautifully. The bronze glitter is another make, but again Snippets. The little rosettes are also K& Co which are all gone now. A little doodling round the edge and hey presto four more cards in the tin.

So. You know what you need to do now don't you? Leave a comment in the box below then go and make two Christmas cards and join in with the Rudolph Day Challenge and if you use Snippets you get to join in with the Snippets Playground. We have a virtual playground and a little smallholding with chickens. Oh yes and a pond!

Tuesday, 22 July 2014

We have another bootiful day here in South Wales with temperatures very warm and sticky. I spent a few hours this morning at the hospital where it was too hot in that waiting room. Never mind ey!

Today is Tuesday and today I have a scrapbook layout to share with you along with my cuppa. It is Elizabeth and Bleubeard's Tea on Tuesday today too. I now have good 'ole Glengettie! Our local Waitrose hasn't had any for a week or so and I had to revert to some alternative tea but yesterday Hubby managed to snaffle some Glengettie. Phew! The last stuff was not good!

It has been a little while since I have shared a scrapbook page mainly as I have been doing some sewing as well as making a journal for our upcoming trip later this year. I will share that with you just as soon as I finish it. I decided after spending most of Saturday at my friend's playing with the journal that I could have a change and do a layout...

I just love this photo. It is my nephew and his wife and their lovely little boy...my first Great-Nephew who was born earlier this year. The photo was taken by my nephew's other God Mother who is a photographer and when he shared it on Facebook I just couldn't resist downloading it.

Here is my cup and some close ups of the elements on my page. The papers are a mix of Kaisercraft (one of my favourites), Cordinations, K&Co and some Snippets. Snippets being the tag above the photo, the rosette, the tag to the right of the photo and the tag behind the photo. The creamy piece at the bottom of the photo with the sentiment on is the last of a well used and well loved K&Co pad. Doubt I will be able to replace that one!

That rosette has been sat in my Tin of Shame for a little while. I wanted to pick some of the yellow in the paper so I masked the photo with some, a yellow button and the rosette. The written sentiment was typed and printed on my puter.

I used a mix of Tim Holtz and Hero Arts stamps and Brushed Corduroy DI. You may just see two small pins in the tag and the buttons are from a mix of pots. I just rummaged through until I found what I wanted. The brad is ancient too and I no longer remember where it came from.

That Love is ancient but yet NBUS.

So there you have it. I text this layout over to my nephew and got a thumbs up, so I know he approves. Now I am going to link up with Tea on Tuesday and the Snippets Playground. Feel free to join us with your cuppa or snippets. Thank you for calling by.

Sunday, 20 July 2014

Hasn't it been a very mixed weekend weatherwise but I hope you had a good 'un. I went to my Buddy's house yesterday for a day of fun and scrapping. I took my journal and managed to finish all the pages. Now I need to make the covers and put it all together. Watch this space...

A Special Friend of mine had a birthday recently and now I know her card has arrived safely I can now share it with you...

My friend lives in the US but she does like all things British so when I was rummaging through my drawers looking for an idea to make her card an idea was born and this is what I came up with.

First I used an X Cut die to cut out the frame. I then stamped my Penny Black stamp and coloured it with Copics and water colour pencils. Underneath the sentry box I stamped the AO Look Right. Then I stamped the AO clock and swiped over with some gold wax. Then onto the telephone box, stamped on a separate snippet of card and then coloured with Copics. The flags were once part of some paper chain that I bought for the Diamond Jubilee

I am taking this down to the Snippets Playground as there are a few Snippety bits on here, as well as sharing it with Penny Black as they are looking for punches and die cuts. Why not dig out some snippets and come down to the Playground?

I hope you have a great week. Whatever you do, don't forget the sun cream!

Friday, 18 July 2014

A Travel Agent looked up from his desk to see an old lady and an old gentleman peering in the shop window at the posters showing the glamorous destinations around the world.

The agent had a good week and the dejected couple looking in the window gave him a rare feeling of generosity. He called them into his shop, 'I know that on your pension you could never hope to have a holiday, so I am sending you off to a fabulous resort at my expense, and I won't take no for an answer.' He took them inside and asked his secretary to write two flight tickets and book a room in a five star hotel. Then, as can be expected, they gladly accepted, and were off!

About a month later the little old lady came in to his shop. 'And how did you like your holiday?' he asked eagerly.

'The flight was exciting and the room was lovely,' she said. 'I've come to thank you, but one thing puzzled me. "Who was that old bugger I had to share the room with?" ACTUALLY, SOME OF US ASK THE SAME QUESTION EVERY MORNING..... !

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

I hope you are all having a lovely day today. I am late joining in on Tea on Tuesday with Elizabeth tonight but never mine ey! I have a special new cup tonight too...

Don't you just love that cup? I know I do. It has a "lock" facility on it so that if you knock it over it doesn't spill and also as it has a lid on it I don't get any more of those little squares floating in the top of my tea. You know exactly what I mean don't you?!!

For any of you who have visited my blog round about now in previous years, you will know that I usually make some sort of sewing/quilting gift for our Quilting Group's Annual Summer Lunch. This year I decided I would upcycle a Christmas gift box which I bought some time ago but have never got round to using (on account that I usually forget where they are at the crucial time!).

A little close up to show you what I have done. The mannekin, button and spools are TH die cuts which I used some chipboard from the back of a book, inked with Walnut Stain DI and then smooshed over with Treasure Gold Wax. I die cut some honeycomb and adhered that on to the mannekin. Whilst that was drying I cut a piece of cream cardstock and stamped it with TH, Papermania, and two unknown stamps (some of them NBUS!). I then took some Snippets of cream cardstock and inked the tiny scissors and spool stamp that you can see. I then gathered up some embellies including the Rosette (from the Snippets tin), peg, buttons, tatted lace (my Mum) a bit of lace, an old tape measure, the last snippet of the netting and some buttons. I just basically fiddled with them until I was happy.

And here is the inside of the lid. Again I stamped a piece of cream card to make a background and then added a stamping of a House Mouse and some embellies. The "Hand Stitched" label was from a label on a journal I received at Christmas. I just tucked it in to hide the word "journal"! All the paper lace was retrieved from my Snippets tin and all ribbon used other than the tape ribbon round the outside was all from the Snippets basket.

And here is round the outside. I hate to think how long I have had some of the bits I have used for this box. Some are VVOS! I have stamped around the top of the box. I was a bit worried because the ink wasn't drying particularly quickly and it had smudged and I was thinking of covering it, but actually I like it like that.

Right that is enough waffle from me tonight. Off to see Elizabeth and the other Tea on Tuesday group to see what is occuring. I am also taking this down to the Snippets Playground. Not sure I could have made this box without using Snippets!

Edit: Elizabeth asked us last week to go back to our favourite post. I have chosen THIS one as it was one whereby I shared a glass of vino! Somehow Elizabeth seemed to know I would be the first to share wine! It also shares the poem that was written at a journal class I had attended...

So Cheers everyone!

Before I go I just want to say Hi and Thanks to my new followers. It is lovely to see you.

Sunday, 13 July 2014

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. It has been lovely weather here in Wales this weekend and I had a friend visiting on Friday evening and staying the night. A jolly evening was spent just talking and drinking one or two glasses of vino. We then went to an Arts and Crafts Show in Caerleon before I dropped her home on Saturday afternoon. Today has been tending to my Girls, washing while the weather was good and a little crafting.

I thought I would share a birthday card I made for one of the girls in work recently. Seems to be a year of Big Birthdays.

I used my Tonic dies, some Snippets, ribbon, Quickutz dies for the 50, Memory Box butterfly and some pins in the bow. The background paper is VOS.

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Unfortunately my email account got hacked last night. If you receive an email from me that looks a trifle odd, maybe with a line of Harry Potter or requesting that you follow a link, DO NOT open it. Just delete it.

It doesn't appear to be harmless just annoying. It will take you to a BBC website page and then email all your friends with silly emails.

If you have received emails from me before you will know that I have a long signature message at the end. These annoying ones don't.

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Happy Wednesday to y'all! Today is WOYWW which I am sure you are all aware of already. Click HERE if you really need to read the whys and wherefores!

Now Sandra and all those with a nervous disposition please turn away now. I will let you know when you can look again!

My desk looking pretty messy after a fun hour playing with my gelli plate last night. I haven't really got to grips with it yet, but that could be 'cos I don't seem to be able to have "fun" time lately. I am not saying that my crafting isn't fun right now, but I seem to be always making for a purpose and not just for the hell of it! I have cleared and cleaned the gelli plate and all the paints (except the yellow one hiding on the right) but these are the stencils and roller on their way downstairs. Just to the left of the pot you can see a ghost printing which I actually quite like. I can see another pant hiding on the far left too! Oops!

You can look back now. I have had two more ATCs recently...

A lovely purpley gothic one from Ike.

And another purple one (does anyone guess I like purple?) from Darnell. She spells sctuff the way I do too! Tee Hee!

Now what have I done with all the ATCs I hear you ask. Well, I sat down on Saturday afternoon and made myself a new ATC book in the style of the previous two years' so that they are all tucked in safely...

K&Co papers, Tim Holtz on the edge dies, along with my lovely new Moroccan die which a special friend sent me for my birthday.

I even managed to find a Snippet of ribbon to tie the book closed. I shall be taking this down to the Snippets Playground too! And here are some shots of the inside. The ATC on the left is from my PIF friend and the others are from lovely peeps.

I need to finish this off with some doodling and stamping, and maybe some tags (though I am not sure as it is mighty thick now) but my priority was to put them somewhere safe so they didn't wander.

Due to a cock up error I managed to make too many pages so if anyone still has some spare ATCs they wanna swap, I would love a couple more? I cannot count these days.

Right. That is me done. I do hope I haven't given anyone the heebeegeebies by the mess on my desk. Thank goodness I didn't show you the floor too!

Click HERE to whizz over to the lovely Mistress of the Desk's desk and join in the madness that is WOYWW. If you leave a message I shall call by either later today or tomorrow after I finish work.

Sunday, 6 July 2014

Whoosh that is another weekend just flown by. I am sure weekend hours go quicker than workday hours or is it me? I hope you all had a good one. I managed to do a mix of crafting, housework, gardening, injuring myself and a lickle more crafting, so not a bad one for me.

Now down to business. A friend of mine asked me to make a wedding card for a member of her family who was a farmer. My lickle brain went working overtime trying to think of something to do that would fit the brief.

Penny Black to the rescue...

A little bit of masking with post-its was required along with thorough cleaning of stamp in between stamps. I also had to get the stamper-ma-jiggey fing. This was the second attempt. The first attempt left me with two girls...not good for a straight marriage! LOL! The image was coloured using Copics.

I cut some ivy, shaped it, attached it and then used some Distress Stickles to give it a lickle sparkle. The border is made using some of the papers left over from my wedding album, and punched using my EK Success punch, and finished with pearls.

It is an easel card. Been a while since I made one of these The wedding bells were also from my Wedding Album papers. The heart strip punched using EK Success.

Here is some detail of the bottom layer. Doilies cut using Tonic die. The "Celebrate" was given to me by one of the girls in work who thought I may like to use it. I hung on to it waiting for the right project. Be assured the blue band is straight but the photo is slightly wonkey!

And here is the envelope. I had to make the whole card as it is slightly too long to use standard sized cards which meant I had to make an envelope to fit.

Ann was very pleased with my card. She said something really nice that the reason she likes my cards is that they are nothing like the ones in the shops. I think she got that right on this one! Let's hope the happy couple like it too.

Friday, 4 July 2014

Last week, Ethel checked into a motel on her 70th birthday and she was a bit lonely. She thought, "I'll call one of those men
you see advertised in phone books for escorts and sensual massages."

She looked through the phone book, found a full page ad for a guy
calling himself Tender Tony - a very handsome man with assorted physical
skills flexing in the photo.

He had all the right muscles in all the right places, thick wavy hair,
long powerful legs, dazzling smile, six pack abs and she felt quite
certain she could bounce a sixpence off his well-oiled butt... She
figured, what the heck, nobody will ever know. I'll
give him a call.

"Good evening, ma'am, how may I help you?

Oh my, he sounded sooo sexy! Afraid she would lose her nerve if she
hesitated, she rushed right in, "Hi, I hear you give a great massage.
I'd like you to come to my motel room and give me one. No, wait, I
should be straight with you. I'm in town all alone
and what I really want is sex. I want it hot, and I want it now.
Bring imp lements, toys, rubber, leather, whips, everything you've got
in your bag of tricks. We'll go hot and heavy all night - tie me up,
cover me in chocolate syrup and whipped cream, anything
and everything, I'm ready!! Now how does that sound?"

He said, "That sounds absolutely fantastic, but you need to press 9 for an outside line."

Thursday, 3 July 2014

Gosh 3 July already. How did that happen? I am sure this summer is trying to whizz past us in a hurry to winter again. NOOOOooooooooo! Let us enjoy the summer!

I was having a little rummage through my blog posts and I came across this post in draft and had never published so I thought I had better rectify the situation...

I made all these cards when my new Memory Box dies arrived. I was sent a vulture for Christmas by a very kind crafty friend and by about May I decided it was about time I used them or else risk losing them. So I bought the flower, border and top butterfly die (I already had the base butterfly die) and had a jolly old play with them using bits and pieces out of the Snippets drawers.

As you may gather from recent posts, I very much like these Memory Box dies. In fact I have not seen a MB die I don't like! Papers include Boofle and Crate Paper (I think).

We must have been short of sunshine at the time as I have left in the shadows through the window! I normally like to keep the shadows off.

Some of these papers and embellies are VOS too. Those sparkly spots are positively ancient! And the Best Wishes stamps were free with something. The Thank U is a SU stamp.

Well that is all from me Folks! Thanks for calling by. See you by the swings as I am popping over to the Snippets Playground as these were all made using Snippets, even the ribbons were from the basket. Anything less than 1/2 yard go in the basket as they don't stay on the pegs very well.